Meeting of the Board of Directors
registration and documents via member area of AECM’s website

Meeting of the internal extraordinary General Assembly
registration and documents via member area of AECM’s website

Meeting of the internal ordinary General Assembly
registration and documents via member area of AECM’s website

Public session of the General Assembly

Welcome & Opening

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM
• Bernhard Sagmeister, Managing Director of the Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (aws), Austria
• Doris Agneter, Managing Director of a promotional institution providing guarantees and participations to SMEs based in Lower Austria (“NÖ Bürgschaften und Beteiligungen GmbH“, NÖBEG), Austria

Unlocking the future: SMEs’ resilient transition

• Kerstin Jorna, Director General, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission
• Barbara Brandtner, Director Markets and cases III: Financial services (COMP.D), Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), European Commission

The interplay of mutual, private, and public guarantee institutions for the benefit of SMEs

• Introductory speaker: Pablo Pombo, Founding President of AECM
• Examples of best practices moderated by Guy Selbherr, President of AECM
• Laurent Melin, President of the National Federation of SOCAMA, France and Christian Dubarry, Head of European and International Relations, Bpifrance, France
• Guy Selbherr, President of the Association of German Guarantee Banks (VDB), Germany and Johannes Heinloth, Member of the Board of Directors of the regional public promotional institution L-Bank, Germany
• Athina Chatzipetrou, CEO and President of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB), Greece and Charalampos Agiropoulos, Chief Investment & Risk Officer of TMEDE – the Engineers and Public Works Contractors Fund, Greece
• Zenón Vázquez Irizar, Member of the Board of Directors of the Confederación Española de Sociedades de Garantía Recíproca (CESGAR), Spain and Ana Vizcaíno, Managing Director of the Compañía Española de Reafianzamiento (CERSA), Spain

Concluding remarks & end of the public session

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM

Welcome & Opening

• José Fernando Figueiredo, Special Honorary President of AECM with the special mandate for international relations

From crisis to recovery: Optimal support of SMEs

• Martin Godel, Chair of the OECD Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship (CSMEE) and Head of Division, Small and Medium Size Enterprise Policy, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland

How to make guarantee institutions and SMEs sustainable

• Pietro Calice, Senior Financial Economist, Europe and Central Asia, The World Bank
• Henk Jan Reinders, Financial Sector Economist in the World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice

17h00 – 18h00

The right transformation strategy for guarantee institutions

• Moderator: José Fernando Figueiredo, Special Honorary President of AECM with the special mandate for international relations
• Kosuke Yokoo, Managing Executive Officer, Japan Finance Corporation (JFC) being member of the Asian Credit Supplementation Institution Confederation (ACSIC)
• Nagla Bahr, President of the Euro-Mediterranean Guarantee Network (EMGN)
• Mohammed Al-Jafari, Coordinator of the Global Network of Guarantee Institutions (GNGI)
• Pedro Pisonero Pérez, Vice President for Europe of the Ibero-American network of guarantees association (REGAR)
• Gabriel Gonzalez, Member of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Association of Guarantee Institutions (ALIGA)

Concluding remarks by the moderator José Fernando Figueiredo and end of the international conference

Annual seminar on “Promoting structural change for a new sustainable Europe – Guarantees with a focus on start-ups”

Welcome & Opening

• Bernhard Sagmeister, Managing Director of the Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (aws), Austria
• Doris Agneter, Managing Director of a promotional institution providing guarantees and participations to SMEs based in Lower Austria (“NÖ Bürgschaften und Beteiligungen GmbH“, NÖBEG), Austria

Keynote address

• Martin Kocher, Federal Minister for Labour and Economic Affairs, Austria

Followed by an acceptance speech

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM

Accelerating the twin transition

• Roger Havenith, Deputy Chief Executive, European Investment Fund (EIF)
• Andrea Nuzzi, Head of Corporate and Financial Institutions, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (cdp), Italy

Panel 1: Financing the green transition

• Moderator and introductory speaker: Lucia Cusmano, Deputy Head of Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Tourism Division, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECD
• Shane McCullough, Product Development Manager, Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI), Ireland
• Róbert Aradi-Beöthy, Senior Consultant, Green Financing, OTP Bank Plc., Hungary
• Ralf Kronberger, Head of the Department Fiscal Policies and Taxation, Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (WKÖ) – the Austrian Federal Chamber of Economy

Main challenges and opportunities for innovative SMEs & start-ups

• Jean-David Malo, Director of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA), Directorate-General Research and Innovation, European Commission

InnoRate – a European technology assessment tool

• Hee-Chang (Leo) Park, Director, Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC/KIBO), Korea

Panel 2: Making SMEs fit for future

• Moderator and introductory speaker: Jiří Jirasek, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Národní rozvojová banka (NRB), Czechia
• Giovanni Zazzerini, Secretary General, INSME – The International Network for SMEs
• Nicolas Tritaris, Senior Investment Platform Advisor at European Investment Bank (EIB)
• Besnik Berisha, Managing Director of the Kosovo Credit Guarantee Fund, Kosovo

The InvestEU Fund: Benefits for SMEs, particularly for start-ups

• Giorgio Chiarion Casoni, Director, InvestEU and financial institutions, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission

Panel 3: Financial instruments: EU support for a successful recovery

• Moderator: ​Gerhard Huemer, Director Economic Policy, SMEunited
• Astrid Bartels, Head of Unit, Access to Finance, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission
• Andrea Bomhoff, Head of Unit, State aid — Financial institutions III, Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), European Commission
• Vincent van Steensel, Departmental Director – Porfolio Guarantees, European Investment Fund (EIF)
• Mateusz Olszak, Director Guarantees and Sureties Department, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK)
• Kiril Velitchkov, Director European Projects and Financial Institutions, UBB, Bulgaria, Manager of KBC Group European Financial Instruments Competence Centre

Concluding remarks & end of the annual seminar

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM

Annual meeting of the GNGI

– For members only –

• Approval of the agenda
• Approval and presentation of new members of the GNGI, including KOREG, Korea
  
• Nomination of the coordinator(s) of the GNGI
• Activity plan 2021 – 2022 / Topics for webinars / Ways to foster knowledge exchange
• Next meeting
• Any other business